EN BANC

[G.R. No. 76353. September 29, 1989.]

SOPHIA ALCUAZ, MA. CECILIA ALINDAYU, BERNADETTE ANG, IRNA ANONAS, MA.
REMEDIOS BALTAZAR, CORAZON BUNDOC, JOHN CARMONA, ANNA SHEILA DINOSO,
RAFAEL ENCARNACION, ANNALIZA EVIDENTE, FRANCIS FERNANDO, ZENNY GUDITO,
EDGAR LIBERATO, JULIET LIPORADA, GABRIEL MONDRAGON, JOSE MARIA PACKING,
DOMINIC PETILLA, MA. SHALINA PITOY, SEVERINO RAMOS, VICTOR SANTIAGO,
CAROLINA SARMIENTO, FERDINAND TORRES, RICARDO VENTIGAN and other students
of the PHILIPPINE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION (Q.C.) similarly
situated, Petitioners, v. PHILIPPINE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION, Quezon
City Branch (PSBA), DR. JUAN D. LIM, in his capacity as President and Chairman of the
Board of Trustees of PSBA, ATTY. BENJAMIN P. PAULINO, in his capacity as Vice-
President for Admission and Registration, MR. RUBEN ESTRELLA, in his capacity as
Officer-in-Charge, MR. RAMON AGAPAY, in his capacity as Director of the Office of
Student Affairs and MR. ROMEO RAFER, in his capacity as Chief Security of
PSBA, Respondents.

SYLLABUS

1. LABOR LAW; EMPLOYER-EMPLOYEE RELATIONSHIP; FULL-TIME TEACHERS RENDERING

THREE (3) YEARS OF SATISFACTORY SERVICE, CONSIDERED PERMANENT. — In a recent
Decision, this Court had the opportunity to quite emphatically enunciate the precept that full-
time teachers who have rendered three (3) years of satisfactory service shall be considered
permanent (par. 75 of the Manual of Regulations for Private Schools). Thus, having attained a
permanent status, they cannot be removed from office except for just cause and after due
process. Now applying the same principle in the case at bar, Mr. Asser (Bong) Tamayo having
stayed in the Philippine School of Business Administration, Quezon City Branch (PSBA, for
brevity) for three and one-half (3 1/2) years (in a full-time capacity) may be deemed a
permanent faculty member provided, of course, the services rendered have been satisfactory to
the school. However, because the investigation showed that Mr. Tamayo had participated in the
unlawful demonstration, his services cannot be deemed satisfactory.

2. CONSTITUTIONAL LAW; BILL OF RIGHTS; FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND RIGHT TO ASSEMBLE;

EXERCISE DEMAND FULL DISPLAY OF DISCIPLINE. — The court value the right of students to
complete their education in the school or university of their choice, and while We fully respect
their right to resort to rallies and demonstrations for the redress of their grievances and as a
part of their freedom of speech and their right to assemble, still such rallies, demonstrations,
and assemblies must always be conducted peacefully, and without resort to intimidation,
coercion, or violence. Academic freedom in all its forms, demands the full display of discipline.
To hold otherwise would be to subvert freedom into degenerate license.

SARMIENTO, J., dissenting: chanrob1es virtual 1aw library

1. CONSTITUTIONAL LAW; BILL OF RIGHTS; RIGHT TO ASSEMBLE; RALLY AND

DEMONSTRATION ATTENDED BY SOME DISORDER NOT CONDUCTED WITH INTIMIDATION OR
VIOLENCE. — If in the course of such demonstration with an enthusiastic audience goading
them on, utterances, extremely critical, at times even vitriolic, were let loose, that is quite
understandable. Student leaders are hardly the timid, diffident types. They would be ineffective
if during a rally they speak in the guarded and judicious language of the academe. It is rather
expected that more or less disorder will mark the public assembly of the people to protest
against grievances whether real or imaginary, because on such occasions feeling is always
wrought to a high pitch of excitement, and the greater the grievance and the more intense the
feeling, the less perfect, as a rule, will be the disciplinary control of the leaders over their
irresponsible followers.

2. LABOR LAW; EMPLOYER-EMPLOYEE RELATIONSHIP; PROBATION PERIOD; COMPLETION

ENTITLES EMPLOYEE TO A SECURITY OF TENURE. — What is plain is that we are here depriving
a citizen of what, in all probability, is his sole bread and butter. What is also clear is that we are
depriving him of livelihood because he "had participated in the unlawful [?] demonstration."
What is evident to me, finally, is that by a stroke of the pen, we would have, in all likelihood,
punished him for exercising his constitutional right of free expression and peaceable assembly.
Probation lasts three years, under the Manual of Regulations for Private Schools. However,
during that period, schools are free to fire probationers and hire replacements, unless for cause.
It is only upon the expiration of the period that the college is at liberty to determine appointing
them or looking elsewhere to fill the job. Apparently, these are the straits in which instructor-
petitioner-Rene (Rafael) Encarnacion and intervenor Severino Cortes, Jr. had found themselves,
accordingly, that they are entitled to reinstatement barring the existence of just causes. None
exists here.
 RESOLUTION

PARAS, J.:

On May 2, 1988, this Court through its Second Division rendered a Decision in the instant case which
prodded the Intervenor Union (hereinafter referred to as the Union) to file a motion for
reconsideration. Its argument hinges on the pronouncement that —

". . . Likewise, it is provided in the Manual, that the "written contracts" required for college teachers
are for one semester. It is thus evident that after the close of the first semester, the PSBA-QC no
longer has any existing contract either with the students or with intervening teachers. Such being the
case, the charge of denial of due process is untenable. It is time-honored principle that contracts are
respected as the law between the contracting parties. . . ." (p. 12, Decision, Emphasis supplied). (p.
874-875, Rollo).

with the allegedly inevitable consequence of extenuating the pernicious practice of management to
arbitrarily and wantonly terminate teachers simply because their contracts of employment have
already lapsed.

The motion likewise points out the fact that two of the faculty members, namely Mr. Asser (Bong)
Tamayo, and Mr. Rene Encarnacion, supposedly found guilty by the Investigating Committee headed
by Mr. Antonio M. Magtalas (p. 342, Rollo), had been issued permanent appointments (not mere
temporary contracts) by no less than the President of the School himself. The appointment of Mr.
Asser (Bong) Tamayo dated August 9, 1986 (p. 887, Rollo) can attest to this claim.

It is on the basis of the foregoing that We hereby amend Our previous statements on the matter.

In a recent Decision, 1 this Court had the opportunity to quite emphatically enunciate the precept that
full-time teachers who have rendered three (3) years of satisfactory service shall be considered
permanent (par. 75 of the Manual of Regulations for Private Schools). Thus, having attained a
permanent status, they cannot be removed from office except for just cause and after due process.

Now applying the same principle in the case at bar, Mr. Asser (Bong) Tamayo having stayed in the
Philippine School of Business Administration, Quezon City Branch (PSBA, for brevity) for three and
one-half (3 1/2) years (in a full-time capacity) may be deemed a permanent faculty member
provided, of course, the services rendered have been satisfactory to the school. However, because the
investigation showed that Mr. Tamayo had participated in the unlawful demonstration, his services
cannot be deemed satisfactory.

In the case of Mr. Rene Encarnacion, and Mr. Severino Cortes, Jr. who taught in PSBA for two and one-
half (2 1/2) years and one and one-half (1 1/2) years respectively, to them a permanent status
cannot be accorded for failure to meet the minimum requirement of three (3) years set by the
aforementioned Manual of Regulations. Of equal importance, at this point, is the fact that the letter of
appointment had been extended only to Mr. Tamayo and not to Mr. Encarnacion, neither to Mr. Cortes,
Jr.

WHEREFORE, for the reasons adverted to herein above, the motion for reconsideration, except insofar
as We have made the aforementioned clarificatory statements about the tenure of full-time teachers
and professors, is hereby DENIED.

In conclusion, We wish to reiterate that while We value the right of students to complete their
education in the school or university of their choice, and while We fully respect their right to resort to
rallies and demonstrations for the redress of their grievances and as a part of their freedom of speech
and their right to assemble, still such rallies, demonstrations, and assemblies must always be
conducted peacefully, and without resort to intimidation, coercion, or violence. Academic freedom in
all its forms, demands the full display of discipline. To hold otherwise would be to subvert freedom
into degenerate license.

SO ORDERED.

Gancayco, Padilla, Bidin, Griño-Aquino and Medialdea, JJ., concur.

Melencio-Herrera, J., Except for the general statement that students’ enrollment is limited to per
semester, I concur.

Gutierrez, Jr., J., In the result.

Regalado, J., No part. Did not participate in deliberations.